Newsletter For February 2012

Ntiganzwa News

Dear Family and Friends,

We have now been back home for a month and a half and things are in full swing once again.  Our family is doing well and dear little Benjamin is on the move!  He is getting very good at crawling and I have my hands full!  I have become so aware of how “not baby proof” our house was as he is constantly pulling at things and exploring his “new” world. 

The Hands For Hope project is also going well.  Another big thank you to all of you who supported them by buying their handicrafts while we were in America!  I cannot tell you how thrilled they were to receive the money that they earned from their hard work.  It is a blessing to continue meeting with them and deepening our relationships.  The sewing students/women are in the last half of their training and we are praying and asking God to continue to give us direction as to where things should go from here and after they finish to study.  Please keep this in prayer.  We want to be able to help them to begin using their skills to be a source of steady income for their families. 

It has now been a whole year since we moved to this area and began our work with the church.  We are excited to see things continuing to grow and seeing the believers continuing to mature as they hunger for the Word of God.  We are excited to be starting to work on plans for the nursery school that they church wants to build.  God has blessed our denomination with a wonderful Korean missionary who is going to partner with us in building the school.  Together, we hope to raise enough funds to build two classrooms and a small office. We have the land and are hoping to begin building soon! 

The children in our neighborhood have begun to visit almost daily and we finally decided it would be best if we had a more official way of meeting with them a ministering to them.  We have now started asking them to come only on Saturday in the afternoon for “Kids’ club”.  We plan to share a little snack with them and teach them the Word of God.  And of course we will also play football and jump rope and coloring, etc.  What a precious gift these children are! 

Thank you so much for you continued prayers and support of our work here in Rwanda.  We are so grateful to have all of you “working” alongside us in this way.  May the Lord bless and keep you!

Valerie, Appolinaire and Benjamin Ntiganzwa

Visit our blog: www.ntiganzwafamily.blogspot.com

You can support our ministry here in Rwanda by:

Sending a check with a note attached “for Valerie and Appolinaire Ntiganzwa in Rwanda” to:

            Commission To Every Nation                                                 

            PO Box 221307                                                               

            Kerrville, TX 78029-1307

       To give online go to: www.cten.org/valeriepeters

Excessive joyfulness

So since my last post I have discovered something.  Turns out the Satan really doesn't like when someone resolves to stop using excuses and rise up to take the opportunities that God places in our path!  He has been doing his best to "get to me" in the last few days.  All kinds of things have been happening.  You know, it is all the little stuff added together that can sometimes cause us to lose it.
Our fan broke.  No big deal, except that means I have been loosing even more sleep than usual.  Waking up sweating and have a really hard time going back to sleep.  Benjamin had a few days of better sleep but has gone back to his normal schedule of wanting to nurse every two hours at night.  So between that and the broken fan, I am quite sleep deprived!
We had a meeting all day at church on Saturday and on the way home our car died.  Yes, that is the technical term for it.  I still have no idea what happened and the mechanic is supposed to finally come today so after that, I will probably still have no idea! :)  All I know is that it was making this crazy noise and then would shut off.  I am thankful that we were relatively close to home when it happened though. 

No more excuses!

So, once again, it has been a while since my last post.  However, this time instead of trying to travel back in time and catch you all up on everything that has been going on since I wrote last, I decided to just skip past all that and get on to today.  I am tired of living in the past anyway :)  Though I am thankful for all that God has done...even today, He is doing a "new thing!" 
It is 9:15 in the morning, Benjamin was up early, so he is now taking his morning nap.  The wash that I did yesterday is swaying on the line in the light breeze.  The dirty diapers are soaking in a basin of hot water waiting to be "agitated", and I sat down at the desk for a moment to get some nourishment (in the Word).  Life is beautiful and I am full of gratitude.
So here's my current thought: "No more excuses!"  I am tired of not doing what is on my heart because of excuses (I have a whole list of them..."I've never done that before" , "I don't have any experience with that."  I am just not sure if I am supposed to do that."...and the one that I pull a lot but never said out loud of course, "I am afraid.").  I know this is going to be a battle cause the enemy of our soul loves to give us excuses as to why we can't or shouldn't do what God is calling us to do.  But let's face it, none of those excuses are really "valid" before God anyway.  His response to them all?... "I am with you."  It's that simple.  "I am with you."
With those simple words, all my excuses are thrown out the window. 
What's that?  You say, you have never done that before?  The Bible is FULL of people doing things they they have never done before.  In fact, it is full of people doing things that NO ONE has ever done before!
You have no experience with that?  Experience was never a requirement of God's.  He is not a newspaper ad looking for someone with a degree, all the right qualifications and experience!
You are not sure if you are supposed to do that?  Ask God.  And then listen.  True, not everything that comes your way is something that you are supposed to do, but let's be real, you usually know when something is a "nudge" from God, deep down somewhere, you know that He is the one who opened that door or brought that idea.
Oh you feel afraid?  Did God not say, He would be with you?  If He is with you, then you really have NOTHING to fear.  You fear failure?  God is not afraid of your failure.  He loves those who are brave enough to try and He loves to use failures!

Okay God, I am ready.  Breathe life onto all these wild dreams You have put on my heart.  No more excuses from me :)

Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest. Ecclesiastes 11:4

Life...

My little angel is peacefully sleeping beside me as I am typing this.  He really is a good baby and I am very thankful. Still there are moments when I get frustrated and come close to loosing my patience, usually in the middle of the night when he wakes up only a half hour after I just fed him!  Being a mother is the biggest blessing in the world but also quite a challenge.  I have literally not been separated from Benjamin for more than a few minutes since the day he was born!  Daddy does try to help out as much as he can, watching him while I am outside washing diapers or doing something quickly in the kitchen but other than that we are pretty much attached to each other.  Healthy or not, I don't have much of a choice in the matter since I am breastfeeding and we don't have family nearby or anyone we can trust to take care of him.  But I love being a mommy and I don't mind being with him all the time.  He is so sweet and brings so much joy into our home.  His little personality is starting to really shine through and he makes us smile and laugh often.  There is nothing quite like the love a mother feels for her child!

In other news, things are going well at the church and with the Hands For Hope project with the women.  I am just trying to work out a good schedule that works for me and baby and ministry.  Takes a bit of juggling but we are making it work!  Basically Benjamin gets strapped to me in the little front pack that I have and everywhere I go, he goes.  This kid is getting familiar with ministry from a young age :)  It works though because he is such a content baby most of the time, thank the Lord for that!  We are going to try to make Mondays a "restful" day for us.  Appolinaire says that Monday is the pastors' day of rest since Sunday is packed full of ministry.  Tuesday I want to try to focus on communication (newsletters, blogging, writing to supporters).  It is so easy for that part to get lost in the every day life and it is a very important thing!  Appolinaire has started doing evangelism in the village on Tuesdays and that is going really well!  Just this week one woman gave her life to Christ and another man was interested and said he would come to church to hear more!  Praise the Lord!  Wednesdays I go to the Hands For Hope shop in the village and spend time with the women who are learning to sew and make jewelry.  I am planning to start doing a "tea and devotion time" with them to be able to feed into them spiritually as well and I am excited about that.  Then we have church in the afternoon on Wednesdays.  Sometimes I am able to go and sometimes not but Appolinaire is always there and gets to do lots of teaching.  Thursdays my goal is to continue focusing on language study.  It is coming along really well but I sort of feel like I will be learning it forever.  I need to not get lazy with it which is why I want to set aside a day that studying Kinyarwanda is at the lot of my list of things to do.  And then Friday is church again!  And mixed into all of that is cooking, washing diapers, taking care of baby, and finding time to fit is teaching English in the village.  Life is full and good!

Catching up...

So it has been awhile...but I was understandably busy!  Benjamin is now six weeks old!  The last month has been a blast!  Here are some highlights:

Benjamin meeting his Aunt!

Benjamin meeting Grandma!

Benjamin's first trip to town (Kigali's Bourbon Coffee, comparable to Starbucks)...he slep through the whole thing :)

First Sunday back at our church after having the baby.  Here we are giving thanks and introducing Benjamin to his church family!

Little family photo shoot (Thanks to my sister for taking the pics!)

Benjamin meeting Kirenga!  He is the son of Jessica and Kalisa (our good friends).  We already informed the boys that they WILL be best friends :)

Attracting a crowd at the market (and everywhere else we go for that matter!)

Setting up the Hands For Hope Shop!

My sister, Angela, meeting with the women making jewelry with Hands For Hope.

Great meeting with all the women (sewing and Jewelry) involved in Hands For Hope

Lots of shopping trips to get all the supplies and materials needed for the shop!

The sewing school well under way!

Jewelry making!

And one cute little boy who is growing up too fast! 

It has been a great and very busy month and a half since Benjamin was born.  I am so blessed that my mom and my sister were able to be here about ten days after he was born.  Angela stayed with us for two weeks and my mom stayed for three.  They were both such a huge help!  We worked hard to get the Hands For Hope project off and running while Angela was here (using the funds that she raised thanks to all of you who bought and ate chicken bbq!).  We had lots of fun times and great memories!  God is so good!

For more about Hands For Hope go to my sister's blog about it:

handsforhopeinrwanda.blogspot.com

Daddy's little boy

Having a baby changes everything!  Little Benjamin is only a few days old but already there have been so many challenges and so many joys!  One of my greatest joys is seeing how much Daddy loves his little boy.  He is so proud and I just loving watching his face as he looks at his son.  There is nothing like it in the world! 
I have to take a moment to brag on my husband...  He has been absolutely amazing these last few days.  Well, he is always an amazing husband but he has been such a great support, caring for me and waiting on me hand and foot, always ready to bring me whatever I may need.  I am truly blessed to have him!
It means so much to me that he is so willing to be near and help me during this time.  Culturally, here in Rwanda, the husband would not be very involved in the birth or taking care of the mother after giving birth.  Usually their will be another woman, mother, sister, or friend, that would be doing these things.  I guess it is kind of seen as "women business."  Appolinaire has been such a trooper!  A couple of times I catch him saying "I didn't know it was like this."  But he never fails to be by my side.  He was there for the birth and I could not have done it without him.  And he is here with me now as I recover, try to learn how to breastfeed, and deal with all the changes, physically and emotionally.  He says I am a hero but he is my hero and my best friend, and a wonderful father! 

Muhire Benjamin Ntiganzwa...our little angel!

Our precious little boy, Muhire Benjamin Ntiganzwa, was born on May 20th around 5:40 pm (Rwanda time). He weighs 4 kilos (about 8 lbs. 13 oz.) Muhire means "one who is blessed." God was totally looking out for us! We live an hour from the hospital but we went to have a normal appointment in the morning. We were told that my doctor was not going to come until 1:00 pm. So we enjoyed a nice morning in town, having no clue that I was so close to giving birth! We went back to the hospital around 12:30 to be told that the doctor was coming at 1:30 but could not see us until 3 pm. We sat around trying to decide if we should wait or go home and try to come the next day. Thankfully we did not try to go home because when we did finally see the doctor she sent us right to a room because I was already 4 centimeters dialated. The next moments flew by so fast. I started feeling really really strong contractions and in no time my water broke and then in a matter of minutes I was being taken to the birthing room to start pushing! There was no time to waste... four hard pushes and we had our baby!
Imagine, we almost went home and if we had, I am pretty sure he would have been born in the car! Thank you Lord for Your protection! It was the most painful thing I have ever felt but I am thankful it went so quickly. And it was totally worth it! We love you Benjamin!

Our Dear Benjamin,
Words can not even begin to express the love in Mommy and Daddy's hearts for you.  We have loved you and prayed for you from the moment we knew you were growing inside.  To see your sweet face and hold you in our arms gives us more joy than we have ever known.  You are so precious to us, little one!  We love you forever and ever!